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Help of Neutral Countries in the Return to Life of the Women Deportees from Ravensbrück Camp

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Help of Neutral Countries in the Return to Life of the Women Deportees from Ravensbrück Camp Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2) December 2019, e024 eISSN 2253-797X doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case Rose Duroux Université Clermont Auvergne e-mail : [email protected] ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9282-9040 Submitted: 18 May 2018. Accepted: 2 April 2019 ABSTRACT: Nothing more usual than to find Spanish refugees of 1939 in the French Resistance as they continued their fight against fascism. Therefore, hundreds of Spaniards where caught in the nets of the Vichy Government and the Gestapo. They are imprisoned in the French jails (Toulouse, Montluc, Fresnes, Compiègne, etc.) alongside the French Resistant women. Both will be piled up in wagons to the camps of the Third Reich. Many ended at the women’s camp in Ravensbrück. Usually, the Spaniards were labelled “F”, “French”, because they were arrested in France. This “F” was part of the “red triangle” of the “political prisoners”. Some were even classified NN (Nacht und Nebel), i.e. called to disappear without a trace. As they were recognized by nobody (neither the French nor the Span- iards), this means: no mail, no parcels. They held on for life thanks to the links they forged randomly across blocks, satellite camps, languages, affinities... However, many died. For some of them, the release arrived in April 1944, thanks to “neutral” countries initiatives: in fact, a few Spanish women were able to slip into the Red Cross convoys transiting through Switzerland, which were initially reserved for French women. Others returned by Sweden. Others, finally, faced the apocalyptic evacuation of the camps of 1945 and the “marches of death”. We propose to study “the return to life” helps through some cases – obviously return to France since there could be no possible repatriation for these Spanish anti-fascist survivors, as the victory of the Allies did not affect General Franco’s power. After return- ing to France, this help continued for two or three years, in particular thanks to convalescent stays in Switzerland, Sweden and somewhere else, and thanks to one-off material contributions from the Swiss Grant (“Don suisse”) or from various organizations. KEYWORDS: 1939-1945; Spanish refugees; Women’s camp; Return; Swiss rescue; Swedish rescue. Citation / Cómo citar este artículo: Duroux, Rose (2019) “Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case”. Culture & History Digital Journal, 8 (2): e024. https://doi. org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 RESUMEN: La ayuda de los países neutrales en el retorno a la vida de las mujeres rescatadas del campo de Ra- vensbrück. El caso de las mujeres españolas. Que se hallen refugiadas de 1939 en la Resistencia francesa, nada más natural: prosiguen su lucha contra el fascismo. Se cuentan por centenas las españolas atrapadas en las redadas “vi- chystas” y “gestapistas”. Las encarcelan con las resistentes francesas en las cárceles de Francia (Toulouse, Montluc, Fresnes, Compiègne, etc.), las hacinan en vagones destinados a los campos del III Reich. Muchas van a parar al campo de mujeres de Ravensbrück. Las españolas son catalogadas “F”, “francesas”, por haber sido detenidas en Francia. Esa “F” se inscribe en el “triángulo rojo” de las “políticas”. A algunas las clasifican “NN” (Nacht und Ne- bel), es decir llamadas a desaparecer sin dejar rastro. No ser reconocidas ni por el Estado francés, ni por el Estado español, eso significa: ni cartas, ni paquetes. Lo que les permitió resistir fueron los lazos que (se) tejieron al azar de los bloques, de los campos satélites, de los idiomas, de las afinidades… Pero muchas murieron. Para algunas la libe- ración llegó en abril de 1945, gracias a iniciativas de países neutrales. Unas cuantas pudieron deslizarse en los con- voyes de la Cruz Roja reservados a las francesas que transitaron por Suiza. Otras volvieron por Suecia. Otras, por fin, sufrieron la evacuación apocalíptica de los campos de 1945 y las “marchas de la muerte”. Se estudiarán las ayudas al 2 • Rose Duroux “retorno a la vida” a través de algunos casos –retorno a Francia ya que era imposible repatriar a España a esas super- vivientes antifascistas, la victoria de los Aliados no habiendo afectado en nada el poder del general Franco. Aquellas ayudas se prologaron después de la liberación durante dos o tres años, en particular mediante estancias de convale- cencia en Suiza y en Suecia, y aportes (materiales) procedentes del “Don Suisse” o de otros organismos. PALABRAS CLAVE: 1939-1945; Refugiadas españolas; Campo de mujeres; retorno; Ayuda suiza; Ayuda sueca. Copyright: © 2019 CSIC. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. We would return. We would tell the story. the one hand, the Germans, who arrested these women in Later. For the time being, it was a question of regaining France and apprehended them as French. On the other strength, of recovering one’s own life, the one of before hand, the French deportees themselves, like Germaine or the start of a new life. Tillion says, encompassed them in the French groups. Charlotte Delbo Moreover, their names were usually gallicized (Neus can become Neige), and in the Camp only the first name was PREAMBLE: OF THE INVISIBILITY OF SPANISH known, as indicated in the first issue of Voix et Visages DEPORTED WOMEN (Voices and Faces), the bulletin created by the Associa- tion of deportees and prisoners of The Resistance, refer- My purpose is to trace the rescue of a few hundred ring to the “emaciated faces of Ravensbrück, that only the female deportees of the women’s camp of Ravensbrück first name identified”3. What is more, the active resistants (Northern Berlin) by humanitarian organizations of neu- usually used an alias: indeed who would recognize Vir- tral countries during the particularly deadly weeks which tudes Cuevas, spouse Codina, in her alias “Madame Car- preceded the fall of the IIIrd Reich. This story describes men” and “Madame Vidal”4, or Mercedes Nuñez, single, the rescue of the first deported woman who were liberated arrested as “Francisca Puig, born Colomer”, and nick- from the concentration camps between April 1945 and named “Paquita”. 1947, following the deceleration of transnational funds. The emblematic example of this presence-absence Amongst these hundreds of women, I will attempt to was given to me by the Nuremberg Process. At the hear- highlight as far as possible the rescue of Spanish women ing of January 28, 19465, Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturi- who were arrested in France between 1942 and 1944 for er reported the “Martyrdom” of Leonor Rubiano, born their involvement in the Resistance. Spanish in Asturias6, referred as to “my dear friend Ma- The number of female deportees of Ravensbrück and rie” For Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier “Marie Rubi- its workplace satellites sites called Kommandos is estimat- ano” is French in her own right. A few lines of her decla- ed around 130000. According to the study of Jacqueline ration is proof of this. Fleury and Marie-Suzanne Binetruy (1995), the French women represented 8% of the camp population. On top of “So, 600 women worked for 12 hours without any venti- the list were the Polish women with 36%, the Soviet wom- lation. All those who worked at the Schneiderei became en, 21%, the German and the Austrian women, 18%. skeletal at the end of a few months, began to cough, The number of French women in Ravensbrück is gen- their eyesight deteriorated, they had nervous tics, caused erally estimated at 8000, an estimate which included by the fear of being hit. I know well the conditions of Spanish women whose supporting friendship association this workshop, because my dear friend Marie Rubiano, a French girl who had just spent three years in Kottbus has now estimated at 400, which comprises 5% of the 1 prison, arrived in Ravensbrück and was sent to the Sch- French contingent. neiderei and each evening she would tell me her martyr- The Spanish refugees “arrested in France and speak- dom... Dr. Winkelmann, the specialist of the selections ing French”, affirmed Germaine Tillion, “were mixed in in Ravensbrück wrote down her name on his black list the mass of the French women and did not react differ- and on 9th of February 1945, with 72 other tuberculosis ently”. From this point on, she would no longer make a patients, including 6 French women, she was hoisted distinction between them. into the truck for the gas chamber.” When I started this research about the “return to nor- mal life” (a topic on which there is an extensive bibliog- The archives of three associations of the former Ra- raphy2), I did not know how much I would have to face vensbrück female deportees would help me in identifying the invisibility of my object of study and how I would the Spanish women: ADIR (1945), an acronym of the As- struggle to identify these “immigrant women” arrested in sociation of Deportees jailed during Resistance already France between 1942 and 1944, because of the Resist- quoted as The Amicale of Ravensbrück and its Komman- ance, and who were often Republicans of the Spanish dos (1947) and the international committee of Ravens- War in exile, but not all of them. brück (1996). However, for the two years immediately Several reasons can explain this difficulty in identify- after the war that this work focuses on, I had to give spe- ing the Spanish women who passed by Ravensbrück: on cial importance to the ADIR which was created in the Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024.
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